


Megillah

by Deshah



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Crossover, Post-Sburb, Title Subject to Change, everything i've ever written is a crossover; this should surprise no one, i am not kind to these characters, nobody's first life went well, nobody's second life went well either, possible parings to be added? we'll see, sburb ruins everything, unholy mess of continuities
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-29
Updated: 2016-07-29
Packaged: 2018-07-27 13:46:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7620694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deshah/pseuds/Deshah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The members of the batfamily are all from different -- failed -- SBURB sessions, and each has kept it quiet their whole second life. Then their powers come back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Megillah

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rae_Kid](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rae_Kid/gifts).



> I am hells of nervous about this, so uh... concrit would be nice? And if anyone has ideas for Cass's classpect, that would be awsome -- right now she's just ?? of Space and it makes it rather difficult to write her. Also, virtual cookies to anyone who can guess everyone's titles/reasoning for the titles!

Before:

In his first life, Bruce’s parents die when he’s fourteen, barely into the game. Alfred lasts a little longer, but not much. Before he died, he passed on what he could in that time of his secret service training to Bruce. It wasn’t enough, but it was something. It kept him alive when his friends perished. It kept him alive long enough to force-quit the game.

His second life was a second chance, without magic or violence or death. Then his parents were murdered. For the first time since his rebirth, Bruce misses his powers. 

Bruce is a Knight. Knights protect. What good is he if he can’t protect anyone? He’s not the Knight of Void anymore and he doesn’t miss it (that’s a lie), but he can be someone else. He can be Batman. And when they start calling him the _Dark Knight_ , he has to hide his smile.

 

After:

It was Damian who noticed it first. The others, old as they were, had stopped reaching for their powers – but Damian had only been without them for eleven years and that impulse, much as he scolded himself for it, had yet to fade.

The Heretic threw Nightwing and Damian rounded on him, sudden rage like he had not felt for years welling up inside him. Without thought, he reached out within the Heretic and scooped out the emotion he found there, emptying him of anger and hatred (of devotion and motivation).

Nothing should have happened. Nothing had happened the other times he had tried this, even when he had been so sure that this time, _this time_ , it had worked. And yet.

And yet. 

The Heretic faltered, stilled as Damian screamed in rage and attacked. He was slow to block, slower to attack than the whole battle beforehand. Sluggish and bewildered, as if he had forgotten why he was fighting, he parried and blocked, finally getting in an attack – slow enough for Damian to dodge. In another world, that blow would have killed him, the Heretic so much bigger and stronger than Damian’s eleven-year-old form. Still bigger and stronger, even emotion-drained, and the Heretic grabbed Damian out of his leap and threw him, sending him crashing back-first into the wall. Damian slid down, knowing that between the concussion he was already aware of and the screaming in his ribs, he wouldn’t be getting up again. Still, he fought ineffectually to stand and face his enemy. The Heretic advanced, still confused, but determined now, convinced that if he was fighting someone he must want them dead. Damian reached again for his rage and carefully, shakily, skill rusty with disuse and seemingly just beyond him as his head refused to cooperate, took his own anger, immense and deep-seated, and twisted it into the self-hatred that was already there, sending the mass of seething loathing outward in a single dense ball. 

The Heretic stilled. Swayed. And plunged his sword into his own throat. 

 

After:

Tim was next. Not because he was next-youngest, no – because he never really stopped trying. As horrid as the game had been, before he came back and found Batman, it was the most human contact he had ever had. It had been, at first, like a dream. That it twisted into a nightmare didn’t stop it from being the best time of his life. Until he became Robin. For the first time in his second life, he didn’t reach for his powers at every turn. He was happy. _He was so happy._

Then the deaths began. 

Now Tim reaches for the time stream every time he meditates, half-hoping that someday he’ll feel it again. He knows it’s foolish. He knows the chances are abysmal and he knows that he couldn’t travel back far enough to save anyone and even if he could the dead Tims would start piling up and who knows how that would work outside of the game? (He doesn’t care how that would work outside of the game. He would die a thousand times if only it would bring everyone back.) When Bruce is lost in the time stream and there is _nothing he can do_ , that really cements it for him that his powers aren’t coming back. 

 

For the first time in years, it seems like everything is going well. Damian and Dick are recovering from the fight with the Heretic. Stephanie, Kon, Bart, and Bruce are all alive. Dick has been spending more time with him. Jason hasn’t attacked him in ages. Everything is going well with the Titans and Cass is visiting for once. For the first time in years, Tim takes out a camera for non-case-related purposes. 

It’s when the photos develop that he sees them. The timelines.

 

After:

Stephanie Brown used to be able to fly. This is what she thinks, as her line is cut, and she falls. It has been nearly twenty years since she was reborn without powers, nearly ten since she regained all her memories. She should not still be thinking about this. And yet... and yet. She closes her eyes as the pavement rushes up to meet her.

Stephanie Brown used to be able to fly. 

 

After:

Barbara is the one who realizes there are others. 

 

Before: 

Tim plays with online friends. It starts off wacky and fun and Tim wonders what his parents will think when they come back and find the house gone. (A little bitterly, he wonders if they knew about the meteors, if they’re worried about him. When they find out, will their first thought be _Tim_ or _the artefacts_?)

He’s only nine, which Georgia didn’t know before she became his server player. They weren’t close – he wasn’t close to any of them – but she immediately adopts him as a younger brother. Maybe that’s why, when there’s only the two of them left (the clever ones, the tech-savvy ones; their access to the alchemeter is what saved them), she doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice herself to give him an opening to escape. 

His second life is like waking from a violent nightmare only to find yourself in a quieter one. He is alone, again. (This time, he doesn’t reach out.)(He doesn’t look for this life’s Georgia.)

(He reaches for his powers, again and again, and breaks a little each time he can’t find them.)

 

After: 

The thing about Witches is that they’re an active class. They do not do anything subconsciously. Thus, as   
Stephanie falls to her death, no sudden gust of wind comes along to save her. If she had not, in her last moment, opened her eyes, rebelled, and reached – well. That would be it. But she did, and in that instant her momentum is redistributed, strong wind steering her safely away from the ground. Using her power is like riding a bike and in moments she is on the rooftop, touching down softly behind the incredulously triumphant henchmen. 

A part of her wants to toss wind at them, create a vacuum to pull them together, suck the breath from their lungs – but she’s been a vigilante longer than she’s been a player, and this? This is a job for Batgirl.

**Author's Note:**

> Please excuse my inability to write fight scenes. Thank you.


End file.
